Papua New Guinea has taken the lead in not only telling the world that rising sea levels is a serious issue but has also taken steps to mitigate climate change challenges affecting small island States in the region.
Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill, who returned from the recently concluded 45th Pacific Islands Forum in Palau, said climate change is a real challenge resulting in rising sea levels and constant national disasters affecting many families and communities. "We have to improve on preparedness for national disasters, for the first time in the country’s history that this is the only government that has put money aside in the budget so that we meet the cost of disasters that continue to frequent our country," he said. "On the global level, I think we have to work together with many of our smaller Pacific Island nations in making sure that people are aware of the issues like rising sea levels and that is certainly affecting many of our low lying states in the Pacific and it is displacing family members and families and quite a large number of our population. "I want to assure you that with the other smaller island States, one thing we can assure you of is that we have the passion to tell the rest of the world our story about how climate change is affecting our countries." He said the second thing the government is doing in mitigating climate change is mitigating factors relating to forestry with PNG Government already limiting the number of Forest Development Licenses. "We have limited that to 10-years. There will be no new licenses issued. We want to preserve as much as possible all the forest that we have in the country so we can have balance climatic conditions within the country and that can be achieved by taking such actions," Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill said the other issue is about resettlement of people and communities on low lying islands and how to resettle them on the mainland and other islands with the capacity to accommodate them. "We have had this similar experience with Manam people where we continuously have problems with the resettlement exercise, we must have a clear guideline and that is what the government intends to develop not only for people displaced by climatic changes but also people displaced by disasters. "We must have clear strategies so that they are not outcasts in our own country, we must make sure we settle them properly and give them the respect and dignity to live peacefully. "So I think the government is heading in the right direction in supporting smaller island states in making sure the rest of the world know that the pollution that they are creating is creating problems for us." He said the other issue is about securing funding that developed countries are putting aide to mitigate climate change. Related news Comments are closed.
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